GENDER, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND FOOD SECURITY IN AFRICA

1. GENDER, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND FOOD SECURITY IN AFRICA BOLA O. AKANJI AFRICAN ECONOMIC CONFERENCE, ADDIS ABABA, OCTOBER, 2011

2. Outline of presentation • Food security – economic or social development goal?? • Social and economic correlates of food security in SSA • Limitations of conceptualization; threat to gender inclusive growth • Gender transmissions to food security: Policy transformation of the CAADP • Other threats to gender-inclusive growth • Emerging Issues and policy implications • Policy recommendations Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

3. Stylized facts about Food (in)security in sub-Saharan Africa • Structural problems of the agricultural sector remain a major threat to its growth • Institutional factors – policy gaffs and poor governance of resources • Structural adjustment without structural transformation – macro –micro growth paradox • The current food crisis is worsening food insecurity in Africa (statistics are widely documented) • The financial crisis is a major factor due to constraint on financial (aid)flows, reduction in remittances, greater speculation in agricultural markets • Climate change poses new threats due to decimation of resources, worst hit are agrarian communities of African countries without technologies for adaptation Gender Role Stereotypes • Women are central to food security mainly at the subsistence or Small Farmer Commercialization (SFC) level; • Resource poor farmers are agents of environmental degradation; are they agents of adaptation and mitigation? • Low human development is a symptom of food insecurity – is it also a cause?? Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

4. Evolving phenomena requiring greater research and new levels of conceptualization (empirical and conceptual works) Threats to inclusive growth: Is food security a social or economic goal in Africa – do we have the proper conceptualization • Policy transformation is imminent (via CAADP) – greater productivity, commercialization, structural transformation and women farmers?? • Greater corporate interest in African agriculture and new threats on domestic food production and prices (and land) • Food Security indicators are closely related to both economic and social (human development indicators -MDGs) mainly via the gender transmission. • Climate change and conflicts over diminishing resources • Other conflicts (political, domestic etc) Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

5. FOOD SECURITY AND INCOME POVERTY (PPP)3 Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

6. Food Security and Economic Transformation Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

7. FOOD SECURITY AND MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH Figure 1b: Correlation of Food (In)Security with MDG Four - Child Mortality Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

8. FOOD SECURITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

9. Figure 2a: Human Development and Food Security Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa Figure 2b: Human Development Index (HDI) and Gender Development Index (GDI) Trends in Selected African Countries Food security, Human Development and gender Development Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

10. NEED FOR PROPER CONCEPTUALIZATION • What are the gender and human development transmissions within the Four-Way Conceptualization? Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

11. Figure 3: A Conceptual Model of Sustainable Food Security and Human Development (Author’s Concept) • Mediating Gender Assignments (MDGs) • Physical • Social • Economic • Cultural • Environmental • Political • DEMAND SIDE • Food Stability • (Post-harvest /external shocks – policy and environmental shocks) • Food Utilisation(Household and the social and infrastructural environment), • SUPPLY SIDE • Food Availability(resources and productivity) • Food Access(Food markets, food prices and livelihood options) SUSTAINABLE FOOD SECURITY Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

12. Resonates with the 4 Pillars of CAADP • Pillar 1: Extending the area under sustainable land management and reliable water control systems – privatization, commercialization and commodity value chains (availability) • Pillar 2: Improving rural infrastructure and trade-related capacities for market access; - Improved agricultural trade and market systems (access) • Pillar 3: Increasing food supply, reducing hunger, and improving responses to food emergency crises; Building human capital, infrastructure and institutional capacity(stability and adequacy) • Pillar 4: Improving agriculture research, technology dissemination and adoption -Promoting sustainable environmental management and technological support (stability Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

13. Transmission Channels from Gender to Food (in)Security (Defeminization) Food Availability • Gender constraints on farm resources – land, water, efficient energy sources will continue to curtail commercialization - productivity and output; • Policy transformation – specifically CAADP and national policies that emphasize greater privatization and commercialization – worsen this alienation of women’s farmers • Land-grabbing is a new potent threat that will worsen access to land of women farm enterprises; • Food security strategies that focus on women as agents (CAADP 3)still retain elements of old assumptions about gender roles – emphasis on their subsistence, small farmer commercialization and food aid, rather than on greater food access via entrepreneurship and inclusive markets • Climate change poses increasing threat on productivity of poor land-scarce farmers, in particular women farmers in the absence of adequate adaptation strategies • Deeper and more negative gender impacts on food security (output) arise via the human development nexus: As more and more small farmers are bypassed, there is has rebound effect of greater food insecurity and wellbeing at the micro-level: What impacts on achievement of the MDGs? • Defeminization of agriculture may appear to be the norm as opposed to much touted feminization; is this good or bad for African agriculture? Is it good or bad for inclusive growth? Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

14. Transmission Channels from Gender contd (Livelihood and FLP) Food Access Global interest in African agriculture (commodities) and natural resources and Commodity market development threaten food security by bypassing community food markets Female Labour force Participation (FLP) appears to be strongly related to the central role of agriculture in the economy. The FLP factor is strongly implicated in food accessibility and food utilization via the income and agro-industrial channels • Agricultural growth and changing technology-labour mix has implications for FLP: what are new possibilities for labour absorption for rural? New commodity value chains will provide more agro-based employment and food access: ability of majority of female farmers to engage with the process? • Expanded agricultural markets for women, (e.g cut-flower and other high-value agricultural systems) - tends to perpetrate other negative gender effects - wage gaps, poor conditions of work, increasing informalization and income (food) insecurity • Increasing female empowerment accompanied with increasing domestic and community conflicts and violence against women. Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

15. Transmission Channels from Gender to Food Security (education and infrastructure) Food Utilization • Small farmer commercialization tends to threaten household consumption at the initial stages: Is SFC a threat to food security (utilization/adequacy) • Gender inequalities in technology access and use dampens post-harvest utilization and availability Mother’s education and FLP tend to have positive influence on child nutrition and health, mediated by time poverty: is there a trade-off between FLP and child care? • Gender inequalities in access to nutrition and through female life cycle impact on life-long development; reinforce feminized poverty and food insecurity Food Stability (environment and conflicts) • Conflicts - creating greater vulnerability by severing access to community food supply system; women and children often worst hit. • HIV-AIDS – infecting households and affecting female workers and carers: impacts on effective and productive mandays, poverty and household wellbeing: are we addressing HIV/AIDS from a holistic perspective? • Climate change poses greater threat of seasonal scarcity, displacement and poverty, in particular female-headed and female-maintained households • As we focus more on the greening of economies, we may significantly address climate change adaptation: how should we best address the mitigation without involving the stakeholders (resource-poor women farmers)? • Food and financial crisis – gendered patterns of coping: women’s lack of assets, face reduced remittances. Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

16. Policy Issues/challenges De-feminization – gender inequality or platform for St?? Inclusive agrarian growth – governance of resources? Cultural rigidities about land and entitlement – more reasons for de-feminization? Promote FLP in rural areas – what is the trade-off with child nutrition and development? Commodification of care economy?? Livelihoods in CVD; Policy and budget imperative (social consideration) Women as agents of degradation; also agents of mitigation Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

17. Policy Recommendations • Inclusive growth policies to focus on Social Policy Index • Strategic policy frameworks that integrate gender and human development into agriculture and food policies; • CAADP needs continuous re-conceptualization, • strongly integrate MGDs; • Gender Action Plans (strategic programmes for women empowerment) to be conceptualized within extant agricultural policies Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

18. New Frameworks for inclusive growth: • A new mindset about women farmers in agrarian growth process • Inclusive growth is “both an outcome and a process. ---- it ensures that everyone can participate in the growth process, both in terms of decision-making for organizing the growth progression as well as in participating in the growth itself. --------, it also makes sure that everyone shares equitably the benefits of growth --- implies participation and benefit-sharing. Participation without benefit-sharing makes growth unjust, and sharing benefits without participation makes it a welfare outcome” (IPC-IG, undated.) • Inclusive policy, must safeguard both the social and economic progress achieved; - share risks and benefits of development actions, avoid “free riding” and “overburdening of the poor” • Must continually assess the legislative and other frameworks for participation in the growth process

19. Food Security and the Four Pillars of CAADP Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

20. Strategic Programme for Rural Women’s Empowerment: Engagement with CAADP Pillars Pillar One: African Women Feed Africa Pillar two: African Women keep agricultural markets going Pillar three: African women’s agency in adaptation and mitigation of climate change Pillar four: African Women Light up Africa Source: UNWomen 2011: Securing the rights and livelihood of rural women in the context of food crisis and climate change. New York Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011

21. Policy recommendations contd • Reverse defeminization through collective action in the governance of resources • Agricultural growth (corporatization) must develop around community production systems and food markets • Alternative livelihood for poor rural women outside land-based agriculture: • FLP in CVD, green economy, food aid programmes, emerging high-value agriculture Green economy jobs!!! • New livelihoods around natural resources – land water, forests also serves to mitigate climate change • Green economy jobs for low-income women offer smart, efficient energy solutions and enhance food access vis income channel • Leverage the ability of women farmers to engage in commodity value chains – public policy and budgets • Address human capacity of rural women – to enhance food utilization and child development (direct cause and effect) • Food aid programmes – that empower women both in the supply (production) and distribution systems Building on Best Practices • Many strategies have proven beneficial to address the concerns in other developing countries. Bola Akanji. Food security, Gender and Human development. AEC, Addis, 2011